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25 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,O ctober 31,2019 insidehalton.com Visit holidayhousetour.ca for tickets. presents HAMILTON-BURLINGTON JUNIOR LEAGUE OF the holiday event of the season... Nov. 8-10 onono ... . vNo 8-10 TOUR3fabulous HOMES isit V yhousetour.caholida or tickets. f the hohoh lolo ilil didi adad yaya eveve evev nene tntn of the seses aeae Bid Now Bid Now forBiG SAViNGS at www.rotaryonlineauction.ca Help Yourself with Big Discounts & Help Us Help Others Bid NOWBid NOWBid NOW at www.rotaryonlineauction.ca November 2-16, 2019 THank YOU to the following Rotary supporters: TE LL YO UR FR iEN dS • Bob Zimmerman CA 905-845-5460 • Dr. Aliki Family Dentistry 905-845-3211 • Glen Oaks Funeral Home, Don Clarke 905-257-8822 • Ron Salem CPA., CMA 905-330-1965 • CM2 1-855-656-5262 William McIntyre was preparing for an out-of- town assignment on April 21, 1984. The Ontario Provincial Police officer was no stranger to danger; much of his career was spent working undercover among bikers, thugs and mobsters. "He was going to meet someone," said Cal Millar, a retired Toronto Star re- porter and author close to the case. "He'd called in to his handler and advised that he was going on a meet." But it's unclear who McIntyre was meeting. Around the time McIntyre was murdered, he was seen leaning over the sec- ond-floor balcony of his apartment at 1300 Marl- borough Crt. in Oakville speaking with a young man with a motorcycle helmet tucked under his arm. While police sought to identify the individual, attempts were unsuccess- ful.ful.f "I'm sure someone knows something," Millar said. "But whether they'll come forward is a big 'if.'" Some 35 years later, the perpetrator might already be dead. "There was always a trail of information in the way he handled cases he was investigating," Millar said. But the days leading up to the murder are difficult to corroborate. "The timeline is inter- rupted," Millar said. "For some reason, they don't know the last moments of his life. There's a two-day window where they don't have a picture." McIntyre's body was found in his locked apart-found in his locked apart-f ment. His personal vehicle and undercover vehicle were parked in the lot nearby. He had been shot at close range in the back of the head with a .22-cali- bre revolver - an unusual choice of weapon, accord- ing to Millar. "A .22 is something someone who didn't have $200 to buy a .38 would have," he said. "It's a target practice gun." Professional criminals of the period would more likely favour .32- or .38- calibre firearms. The standard-issue cal- ibre for Halton police is a .40-calibre , while the RCMP and OPP standard- issue calibre is 9mm. "The answer could be in the outlaw biker commu- nity," Millar said. "He played the part. He hung around with bikers and all sorts of people on the un- derbelly of society." Born in 1951, McIntyre grew up in Oakville and spent three years as an ap- prentice mechanic before making the decision to be- come an officer with the Ontario Provincial Police in 1972. "When you look at a pic- ture of him, you can't see a police officer at all," he said. "He doesn't look like a cop." Because of the nature of his work, the list of sus- pects was massive. "He actually spent a lot of time in jail monitoring prisoners who police thought might confess to something," Millar said. Initially, police zeroed in on master thief Rex Yates, an accomplishedYates, an accomplishedY locksmith who specialized in breaking into bank vaults. He had vowed re- venge on McIntyre after he had posed as a thief and elicited a confession. "He could go to jail and people would think he wasn't anything but a hardened criminal," Mil- lar said about the slain of- ficer. "He fit in with theficer. "He fit in with thef prison population." Detectives suspected Yates had learned McIn-Yates had learned McIn-Y tyre's home address, made a key to his apartment and sneaked inside to ambush him. However, several sources eventually placed Yates out of town near Or-Yates out of town near Or-Y angeville during the mur- der. Yates eventually servedYates eventually servedY five years in prison basedfive years in prison basedf on the confession ac- quired by McIntyre. Following his release, Yates drowned in a myste-Yates drowned in a myste-Y rious boating accident near Kingston, Ont. Detectives also fol- lowed up on a tip that Mc- Intyre was gay and mem- bers of the OPP had com- mitted the murder to si- lence him from exposing officers. McIntyre's sister, Sally Ward, called the sugges-Ward, called the sugges-W tion ridiculous and urged police to look elsewhere. In 1994, a former RCMP constable, Arturo Nuosci, 34, was sentenced to 90 days in jail for fabricating evidence implicating a for- mer male lover and anoth- er man in McIntyre's death. OPP doubled a $25,000 reward offered by the Hal- ton Regional Police Ser- vice for information on McIntyre's murder in 1997. "If we had a cop-killing today, it would be major news day after day," Millar said, adding this particu- lar case has been unusual- ly dormant. Since 1961, according to Statistics Canada, only five murders of police offi-five murders of police offi-f cers, four per cent of the total, have remained un- solved. McIntyre's death is one of those unsolved mur- ders. That compares to a solve rate of 84 per cent of homicides in general. While McIntyre has no surviving immediate fam- ily, the desire to solve the case is still strong. "The family is still here," Millar said. "His family is the 5,000 cops infamily is the 5,000 cops inf the OPP and the extended family of all cops in thefamily of all cops in thef country. He still has a great family." CRIME ONTARIO COLD CASE: UNDERCOVER OAKVILLE COP MURDERED AT HOME IN 1984 "IF WE HAD A COP-KILLING TODAY, IT WOULD BE MAJOR NEWS DAY AFTER DAY." BRYAN MYERS bmyers@metroland.com William McIntyre was slain in his Oakville apartment over Easter weekend in 1984. His killer has never been found. Ontario Provincial Police photo